Many complaints against CPS resolved through body-worn cameras: report

Body-worn cameras used by Calgary police officers have helped reduce the number of formal complaints and streamlined the process in resolving any issues that came up last year, the CPS says. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

About 58 per cent of formal complaints about police misconduct by the Calgary Police Service have been partially or completely resolved through the use of body-worn cameras, a new report says.

Details of the success of body-worn cameras came from a report of the CPS professional standards section, a group that follows police conduct complaints.

"This report really reflects how CPS is accountable to the community that we serve," the CPS' executive director of legal and regulatory services Katherine Murphy told the Calgary Police Commission on Wednesday evening.

"We spent 2023 taking a hard look at how we could provide better service to Calgarians."

Murphy said the report shows body-worn cameras helped to streamline the resolution of formal complaints against police officers.

She said 70 per cent of complaints against officers were closed in under 12 months, compared to 53 per cent in 2022 and 35 per cent in 2021.

"Body-worn cameras have been exceptionally useful in this regard," she said.

"We know that it takes significantly less time to resolve a complaint that has a body-worn camera as compared to those that don't."

The report says complaints with body-worn cameras generally take six months to resolve, while those without them take nine months.

"It's evidence we can rely on. It's objective, it's neutral and professional standards can rely on that to expedite the disposition of our files," Murphy said.

Last year, the service processed 879 citizen contacts through regular methods such as calls to the service and through online forms, which is consistent with the five-year average, police said.

Murphy said external complaints, which are written, formal complaints of misconduct under the Police Act ,are down by 12 per cent year over year.

"That number does not take into account population growth, so when you factor that in, it's actually down by a higher amount," she told the commission.

In 2023, there were 252 external complaints and 46 internal complaints, which are initiated when CPS leadership detects a problem.

Murphy say the main concerns of all of the citizen contacts, as well as external and internal complaints, are rudeness or unprofessional behaviour by police, a lack of service and "differential treatment by an officer."

Just two per cent of the and complaints in 2023 were related to protests or social events.

In 2023, 88 of the allegations against officers were resolved at a hearing, with the most common punishment being a forfeiture of overtime hours.

Twenty-six per cent of complaints resulted in a demotion, 17 per cent say a suspension without pay and six per cent received a reprimand.

Last year, four per cent of formal complaints against Calgary police officers resulted in their dismissal from the service.

"We know that as a police service we not only need to be accountable to the community, but we need the community to trust the process by which we hold ourselves accountable," Murphy said.

CPS first introduced a plan to equip all of its officers with body-worn cameras in 2018 and, by 2021, the technology cut down the requirement to use force in arrests by 11 per cent.

Last year, the Alberta government said it wanted to see body-worn cameras mandatory for all police officers in the province.

Critics of the idea suggested the strategy would be very expensive.